First Thirteen Colonies

Betsy Ross sewed the first flag by hand (sewing machines had not been invented yet).

She sewed 13 stripes and 13 stars, one for each of the colonies.

Each time a state was added, a new star was added. We still have 13 stripes on our flag to represent the first 13 colonies.

At first a new stripe was added, too, but that ended up being too many stripes, so it was decided to keep the number of stripes at 13.

Virginia Dare was the first English baby born in America. Her parents and the other colonists became known as the Lost Colony, because they disappeared.

John White (their leader) went back to England to get needed supplies. But England was at war with Spain. (That was when the Spanish Armada was wiped out by a storm.) That war delayed John White's return to the colonists.

When he finally got back to America, all he found were the letters CRO and the word CROATAN written on a tree.

The Lumbee Indians were called Croatans in the 1800's. Many Lumbees have the same last names as the missing colonists. Most historians agree that the Lumbees are a racial mixture. Early records show that the Lumbees (then called Croatans) looked like Indians, but lived as white settlers. They have not been respected by other Indian tribes, to this day.

Do you think that Virginia Dare and the other colonists may have settled with the Lumbees (known earlier as Croatans)?

John Smith led the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, VA. He was almost killed by the Powhatan Indians, but Pocahontas begged her father to spare his life.

There were many disagreements between the English colonists and the Powhatan Indians. The English settlers had come looking for gold, and were used to having food be brought to them. They treated the Indians rudely. John Smith was a strong leader who forced the colonists to work, and he eventually earned the respect of the Powhatan Indians.

Pocahontas ended up being kidnapped by the English. While a prisoner on an English ship, she and John Rolfe fell in love and married, with the blessing of the English and the Powhatan chief (Pocahontas' father). There were 8 years of peace between the English colonists and the Powhatan Indians.

Pocahontas converted to Christianity, changed her name to Rebecca, and went to England with her husband. They planned to return to America, but she died of smallpox before they could sail. They had a son, Thomas Rolfe, who settled in Virginia. Some of their descendants still live in Virginia.